Crampons, Snowshoes, and other accessories worn over footwear require some way to connect the footwear to the crampon, snowshoe, or other accessory. The problem of fitting a large variety of different sized and shaped footwear items to a given accessory has led to a proliferation of design solutions over centuries.
More specifically, in modern times, there have been many mechanical types of solutions to connecting the footwear to the accessory such as a boot equipped with a feature that is fitted in one of many ways with a receiving structure on the accessory such that the two are mated securely during the use of the accessory. A typical Alpine ski boot and binding is an example of this. Another example is a step-in crampon where the boot is generally rigid and has features for mating with the crampon toe bale and rear bale with locking mechanism and strap currently very common for such an application.
For common types of footwear that do not have any special features designed to mate with a footwear accessory, the accessory might employ a different strategy for securing the accessory to the footwear. In this case, many various strap configurations, molded plastic and elastomeric components to surround the footwear have been developed. Generally, these solutions are designed to accommodate a variety of sizes and shapes of footwear by having flexible materials and adjustable straps to allow for these variations.
In demanding applications where the footwear accessory is, for example, a snowshoe where significant forces during use encourage movement between the footwear and the snowshoe and can result in shifting of the footwear in the snowshoe binding. This shifting often results in decreased performance and enjoyment in the activity and can result in the snowshoe needing constant adjustment or coming detached from the footwear completely.